SWBG blog

This month, the convener of the Scottish Women's Budget Group, Angela O'Hagan, appeared on the Scottish feminist policy podcast On The Engender to talk about gender budgeting. The podcast also features voices from SWBG members talking about why they are part of the group.

Listen below, or find it on iTunes, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts

2017 was a busy year for the Scottish Women’s Budget Group, so here's some things you might have missed in some of our key areas of work.

Our first meeting of 2018 will be on February 1st in Glasgow – we’d love you to come along, find out more, and help us plan our work for the year ahead. There are more details below and you can sign up here.

On December 15th, the Draft Scottish Budget will be announced. Here, we answer some of your frequently asked questions about the budget process in Scotland.

What is the Scottish
Budget?

The
Scottish Budget is published annually and sets out spending plans for the
Scottish Government, including spending on non-executive bodies like Police
Scotland and the Crown Office and
Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS), and agencies like Scottish
Enterprise.

It
also sets out plans to raise revenue through Scotland-specific national taxes.

The Scottish Draft Budget occasionally incorporates a Spending Review
which sets out overarching spending and revenue-raising priorities for
multi-year periods. A Spending Review is a “strategic vision for Scotland’s public finances” over a four-five year
period, and up to now has usually followed a Comprehensive Spending Review by
the UK Government which normally comes after a UK General Election.

On Tuesday 7th June, the Scottish Women's Budget Group joined forces with Engender and Close the Gap to hold an event looking at gender budgeting.

It was a fantastic day, with around 50 women coming together to discuss how we can work together to push for a feminist economic plan for Scotland. A full report is on the way, but in the meantime you can access the slides from Professor Angela O'Hagan here, and Emma Ritch, executive director of Engender, here.